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LIfe at High Altitude in Colorado

May your trails be crooked, winding, lonesome, dangerous, leading to the most amazing view. May your mountains rise into and above the clouds.

-Edward Abbey, naturalist and author (1927-1989)

Friday, January 17, 2014

Some Randomness for the End of the Week - Random Friday

A bit of randomness:

I know I sound like a broken record,

but

it's VERY cold in Breckenridge

and

we have LOTS of snow!

I got new glasses

and

a new haircut...

I let my very short hair grow for 5 months and finally couldn't stand it anymore. I don't think I'm a long hair person - too much fuss. However, my very beautiful, quite sweet. and highly persuasive stylist said she'd trim it a little but maintain some length to give me a shaggy style a bit longer than my usual spiky one. She said she'd cut it free if I don't like it. This is day two of trying it out - we'll see...

My youngest grandchild is on the move.

Sam (16 months) is doing some major exploring and step climbing.

(So is Grammy as she follows him.)

He's better than a gym membership!

My Narcissus bulb is blooming.

As snow swirls outside and my garden is under 4 foot drifts, this tiny white bloom is bringing me much pleasure.

45 comments:

I think it does sound rather cold! I like the swirling clouds on that first shot and the sun flare on the last one! So new specs and haircut! It's nice to ring a change! Cute picture of Sam as he holds onto the table. I do understand how much you enjoy your blooming spring flowers! I like to have planted bulbs in my home at this time too! Keep warm and snug and have a lovely weekend!

I like your haircut and your glasses. My hair is longer than usual right now and I don't really know what to do with it....it will probably be much shorter soon.It is sunny and 53 here right now and really beautiful. My youngest daughter has taken her younger kids to the zoo.Sam is so cute....I bet he really does keep you on the move.

Narcissus in bloom - wow, what is the little guy thinking? it is too cold for such a beauty. wait until warmer times. ( :i love your hair cut & new glasses ... you look too cute! enjoy! too fun to try a new look makes you feel like a new person.

I like the haircut...I am no longer a long hair person either...I try to let it grow and just cannot stand it. At the beginning of our week we had shirtsleeve weather. I scrubbed and rinsed our front porch which is not small at all in only a shirt. Today we have not got above 20ºF. I would gladly take some 50º weather.

Oh what fun to follow Sam around! We are having up and down temps here and supposed to get snow tonight and tomorrow. My hair is so fine and thin that I have to keep it short as I can't do anything with it otherwise. Love the photo of the narcissus! Have a fun weekend in the city and enjoy the warmer weather!

I LOVE your hair. I am on the other side of that process - trying to grow out my short cut. My son told me my style was making me look older and I had the rest of my life for that. I'm just not a very patient person when it comes to hair - especially once it starts warming up. (ohh, sorry, sensitive subject - heat and what not .... kidding). Your deep freeze is quite lovely, but I can appreciate the desire for warmer temps.

Your Narcissus are delicious, Barb - beautiful photography This is the first year ever that my paper whites have not bloomed at Christmas, - as a matter of fact they have still not bloomed. I missed them...... Like your haircut! One morning about a month ago I got up, looked at myself, picked up the scissors and after only a little hesitation cut off the hair that I usually twirled around in a bun, at the back. Loving the feeling.

Love the hair! I'm on month three of letting my short hair grow out and I don't know how much longer I can go on. I applaud you for going 5 months! Anyway, love the sunburst, the grandson is precious, and that cloud cover amazing!

Yes, Barb! It is cold in Breckenridge right now! And there are gigantic heaps of snow at 10,000 feet. This afternoon down in Aurora, it was gorgeous and warm. I hope you enjoy your warm respite. Sam is very cute, and what a fun age! Like the haircut. I grew mine long after having it short for over 30 years ~ but it does take work! Take care!

For someone with pin straight (impossible to style) hair, I am envious of your short no fuss chic haircut Barb! Love the dramatic shot of the sky and mountains. Enjoy your long (warm) weekend in the city :)

I think the haircut is really cute -- short enough to not look awful after you've had hat head. I have headband hair at the gym and I'm thinking of going shorter next time, even though she took a couple of inches off earlier this month!

I wish I'd planted paper whites this year. Our winter needs flowers and life. Yours are beautiful. And that little grandson is a charmer! What a total dear!

I love your last image, with the beautiful shadows of the trees and the sun flare. I'm a short hair person too -- I like low maintenance cuts, yours is cute. Chasing grandchildren around is the best workout of all, isn't it!

Hope your warm weekend gives you a sense of freedom. After a balmy week we are headed into colder weather in a couple of days. Wish you could send some of your Colorado snow here. Your grandson looks delightful. I can see how he keeps you hopping. Enjoy your narcissus. My amaryllis is in full bloom. The first opened flowers are already starting to fade. Those indoor flowers keep me going on a gloomy day.

I talked with my sister in Montrose yesterday and she said it was nearly 40 degrees there and sunshine....they were sitting out on the deck where the warm sun hits...enjoying a hot toddy. LOVE your hair style!!! [I've worn mine spiky before also, and my son told me to 'dress your age mom'...dunno what that meant. LOL The flower blossom is so very pretty. And your grandson...such a delight and so darned cute!!!

That was a good five. Especially love the little pea-doodle peeking over the table. I bet he can give you a good workout. My grandchildren are all big now and sometimes I miss the toddler stage....and then I remember the workouts an how old I am now. A bit too old to be chasing them around.

Sam sure is a cutie, but they can move very fast at that age! I love your comment that he's better than a membership to a gym. Enjoy your stay in the city. 50°F sounds great. It has been very cold here north of Toronto too.

Awww, Sam is just adorable, Barb, and I LOVE your new haircut. It looks so nice on you, and looks like it's easy to care for too.My paper whites are blooming too. Such a perfect time when everything else is just cold and gray.Happy day to you!

Barb, it's always so nice to check in and see what you're doing out there in the cold and snow. (Same thing here.) Your haircut is great and oh how I love your grandbabies. Hope you are having a nice holiday weekend.

that first photo is quite amazing Barb! So dramatic and gorgeous. Cold cold, hope you are enjoying some warmer weather, thawing your bones and enjoying a new environment. your hair looks wonderful. yea for new glasses too, i am ready for that as well!

I like both your new glasses and your new haircut, Barb. I am tempted to cut mine short as I've lost all my curl and i and I not used to hair falling in my eyes all the time. My granddaughter began walking early this month at 11 months and you are so right that they are better than a gym in keeping us on our toes! She can move very fast! My husband and I will be coming up to Breckenridge this February, as we booked a sleigh ride/dinner. We are keeping our fingers crossed that it won't be bitter cold and that there won't be a blizzard -- hope that is not too much to hope for! ;)

Stopping by from Nancy's blog. Pretty haircut and glasses, Barb! Your grandson is adorable, he would be fun to follow around. I love your pretty narcissus, I wish I had a green thumb. I am hoping the weather will warms up soon, come on spring. I enjoyed your post and photos. Have a happy week!

Hello Nancy sent me over to have a look at your glasses I LOVE them and your haircut is so much like mine I have to say I love it too, you look wonderful. Sam is adorable and I know he makes you smile every moment. The cold oh yes I don't want to talk about how beautiful it looks outside till you get out there:) B

Quotes for Living

To be without some of the things you want is an indispensable part of happiness. -Bertrand Russell, philosopher, mathematician, author, Nobel laureate (1872-1970)

This above all: to thine own self be true, / And it must follow, as the night the day, / Thou canst not then be false to any man. -William Shakespeare, poet and dramatist (1564-1616)

We are not the same persons this year as last; nor are those we love. It is a happy chance if we, changing, continue to love a changed person. -William Somerset Maugham, writer (1874-1965)

Society is like a lawn, where every roughness is smoothed, every bramble eradicated, and where the eye is delighted by the smiling verdure of a velvet surface; he, however, who would study nature in its wildness and variety, must plunge into the forest, must explore the glen, must stem the torrent, and dare the precipice. -Washington Irving, writer (1783-1859)

"Set aside a certain number of days, during which you shall be content with the scantiest and cheapest fare, with coarse and rough dress, saying to yourself the while: 'Is this the condition that I feared?'"-Seneca (1 BC - AD 65)

The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift. - Albert Einstein

You get your intuition back when you make space for it, when you stop the chattering of the rational mind. The rational mind doesn’t nourish you. You assume that it gives you the truth, because the rational mind is the golden calf that this culture worships, but this is not true. Rationality squeezes out much that is rich and juicy and fascinating. - Anne Lamott, (Bird by Bird)

Take a Walk with Me...

Breckenridge, CO

Just Keep on Pedaling!

Life is like riding a bicycle - in order to keep your balance, you must keep moving. ~Albert Einstein

Lucinda B. Rabbit

Barb's Alter-Ego

Good Advice:

Finish every day and be done with it. You have done what you could; Some blunders and absurdities crept in; Forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day; You shall begin it serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense.

-Ralph Waldo Emerson, writer and philosopher (1803-1882)

Welcome to My World

Dream

Reflect

Awake

Glow

Follow

Twinkle

Sustain

Inspire

Rejoice

Explore

Encompass

Indulge

Behold

Play

Soar

Discuss

Smile

Refresh

Span

Unfold

Remember

Stay Positive!

SMILE

Sometimes your joy is the source of your smile, but sometimes your smile can be the source of your joy. Thich Nhat Hanh

Every time you smile at someone it is an action of love, a gift to that person, a beautiful thing. Mother Theresa

Visitors

Respect Them

The animal shall not be measured by man. In a world older and more complete than ours, they move finished and complete, gifted with extension of the senses we have lost or never attained, living by voices we shall never hear. They are not brethren; they are not underlings; they are other nations, caught with ourselves in the net of life and time, fellow prisoners of the splendor and travail of the earth.

-Henry Beston, naturalist and author (1888-1968)

Lingering in Happiness by Mary Oliver

After rain after many days without rain, it stays cool, private and cleansed, under the trees, and the dampness there, married now to gravity, falls branch to branch, leaf to leaf, down to the ground where it will disappear--but not, of course, vanish except to our eyes. The roots of the oaks will have their share, and the white threads of the grasses, and the cushion of moss; a few drops, round as pearls, will enter the mole's tunnel; and soon so many small stones, buried for a thousand years, will feel themselves being touched.

Bloom!

Red Columbine

Calypso Orchid

Wild Phlox

Pink Columbine

Sky Pilot

Red Paintbrush

Mountain Dryad

Elephant Head

Shasta Daisy

Alpine Lily

Fuschia Paintbrush

Old Man of the Mountain Sunflower

Pond Lily

False Dandelion

Arctic Gentian

Death Camus

Aster

Blue Columbine, CO State Flower

Echinacea

Mallow

Sunflower

Yellow Columbine

Pygmy Bitterroot

Purple Bellflower

Pussytoes

Poppy

Poppy

Tulip

Landscapes of the Mind— Dawna MarkovaI will not die an unlived life.I will not live in fearof falling or catching fire.I choose to inhabit my days,to allow my living to open me,to make me less afraid,more accessible;to loosen my heartuntil it becomes a wing,a torch, a promise.I choose to risk my significance,to live so that which came to me as seedgoes to the next as blossom,and that which came to me as blossom,goes on as fruit.

Wisdom from Others:

The secret of good writing is to say an old thing in a new way or a new thing in an old way. -Richard Harding Davis, journalist and author (1864-1916)

Words are the small change of thought.-Jules Renard, writer (1864-1910)

The only real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes.-Marcel Proust, novelist (1871-1922)

A word is not a crystal, transparent and unchanged, it is the skin of a living thought and may vary greatly in color and content according to the circumstances and the time in which it is used.-Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

A few minutes ago every tree was excited, bowing to the roaring storm, waving, swirling, tossing their branches in glorious enthusiasm like worship. But though to the outer ear these trees are now silent, their songs never cease.-John Muir, naturalist, explorer, and writer (1838-1914)

I only went out for a walk and finally concluded to stay out till sundown, for going out, I found, was really going in.~John Muir, 1913, in L.M. Wolfe, ed., John Muir, John of the Mountains: The Unpublished Journals of John Muir, 1938

On the mountains of truth you can never climb in vain: either you will reach a point higher up today, or you will be training your powers so that you will be able to climb higher tomorrow.-Friedrich Nietzsche, philosopher (1844-1900)

You cannot stay on the summit forever; you have to come down again. So why bother in the first place? Just this: What is above knows what is below, but what is below does not know what is above. One climbs, one sees. One descends, one sees no longer, but one has seen. There is an art of conducting oneself in the lower regions by the memory of what one saw higher up. When one can no longer see, one can at least still know. Rene Daumal

THE THING IS by Ellen Bass

to love life, to love it evenwhen you have no stomach for itand everything you've held dearcrumbles like burnt paper in your hands,your throat filled with the silt of it.When grief sits with you, its tropical heatthickening the air, heavy as watermore fit for gills than lungs;when grief weights you like your own fleshonly more of it, an obesity of grief,you think, How can a body withstand this?Then you hold life like a facebetween your palms, a plain face,no charming smile, no violet eyes,and you say, yes, I will take youI will love you, again.

"The Thing Is" by Ellen Bass, from Mules of Love.

Keeping Things Whole by Mark Strand

In a fieldI am the absenceof field.This isalways the case.Wherever I amI am what is missing.

When I walkI part the airand alwaysthe air moves into fill the spaceswhere my body's been.

We all have reasonsfor moving.I moveto keep things whole.

The Summer Day by Mary Oliver

Who made the world?Who made the swan, and the black bear?Who made the grasshopper?This grasshopper, I mean--the one who has flung herself out of the grass,the one who is eating sugar out of my hand,who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down--who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes.Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face.Now she snaps her wings open, and floats away.

I don't know exactly what a prayer is.I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass,how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields, which is what I have been doing all day.Tell me, what else should I have done?Doesn't everything die at last, and too soon?

Tell me, what is it you plan to dowith your one wild and precious life?

Mindful

Every day

I see or hear

something

that more or less

kills me

with delight,

that leaves me

like a needle

in the haystack

of light.

It was what I was born for -

to look, to listen,

to lose myself

inside this soft world -

to instruct myself

over and over

in joy,

and acclamation.

Nor am I talking

about the exceptional,

the fearful, the dreadful,

the very extravagant -

but of the ordinary,

the common, the very drab,

the daily presentations.

Oh, good scholar,

I say to myself,

how can you help

but grow wise

with such teachings

as these -

the untrimmable light

of the world,

the ocean's shine,

the prayers that are made

out of grass?

~ Mary Oliver ~

LIVE and LEARN:

"Live and Learn"Click on the link above to see this word cloud at WordItOut. You may also view it on this website if you enable JavaScript (see your web browser settings).